BuzzFeed, Inc. (BZFD) shares climbed Tuesday after announcing a partnership that brings AI-powered search to its Southeast Asian properties. The media company is deploying Taboola (TBLA)'s DeeperDive generative AI answer engine across BuzzFeed Asia's websites.

The rollout will hit Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines first. It's BuzzFeed's first time integrating a site-based AI search assistant on a regional scale, which tells you something about how publishers are thinking about AI these days. They're not running from it anymore.

How It Actually Works

DeeperDive isn't your typical search tool. It sits directly on publisher websites rather than sending readers somewhere else. Users ask questions, get instant answers pulled from the publisher's content library, and then see suggested articles from the same site to keep them clicking around.

What makes this interesting is that Taboola built it to work with live editorial coverage instead of relying on static training data. The system analyzes engagement patterns across Taboola's entire global publisher network, which theoretically means more relevant and timely responses on topics that are moving fast.

For BuzzFeed Asia, the play is straightforward: keep readers engaged on their own turf instead of losing them to ChatGPT or Perplexity. The company wants visitors digging deeper into their content, not bouncing off to external AI platforms that won't share the ad revenue.

Scott Mackenzie, CEO of BuzzFeed Japan & Asia, framed it as future-proofing the business. He said the tool taps into BuzzFeed's active reporting and back catalog, with the ultimate goal being better engagement and sustainable monetization over time.

The Monetization Angle

Here's where things get practical: Taboola says DeeperDive lets publishers insert high-intent ads right inside AI-generated responses. The ads appear next to contextual answers and related stories, creating what the company describes as a new revenue stream that doesn't wreck the user experience.

This deal is part of a broader shift in how media companies approach AI. Instead of treating it like competition, publishers are embedding these tools directly into their platforms. The strategy preserves audience ownership and keeps advertising dollars from flowing to external AI services.

Adam Singolda, Taboola's founder and CEO, put it bluntly: publishers need to shape AI adoption rather than fight it. He positioned DeeperDive as a way for them to lead the transition while maintaining editorial identity and commercial control.

Price Action: BZFD shares traded up 1.94% to $0.9001 on Tuesday. TBLA shares gained 0.25% to $3.970 at the time of publication.